Leviticus 16:11

According to the Mishna (Tal. Bab. Yoma), the high priest on presenting his bullock (Leviticus 16:6) made a confession of sin to which the people answered -Blessed be the Name of the glory of His Kingdom for ever and ever." He cast lots upon the goats, and declared which was for the Lord, and they answered -Blessed be the Name, etc." (fol. 39 a). He put a tongue-shaped piece of scarlet wool upon the head of the goat to be sent away, and came beside his bullock (Leviticus 16:11) the second time and repeated his confession, and they answered -Blessed be the Name, etc" (41 b). He killed the bullock, and caught the blood in a bowl; he took the censer and put burning coals from the altar in it (43 b). They brought him the cup and the censer; he filled his hands with incense and put it into the cup; he took the censer in his right hand and the cup in his left (47 a), and went into the temple, and when he came to the altar, he heaped the incense on the burning coals and the whole house was filled with smoke; he returned, and offered a short prayer in the outer house, but did not prolong it, lest (by a lengthy absence) he should cause terror in Israel (51 b, 52 b). In the second temple the high priest placed the censer on a stone in the Holy of Holies, called -foundation, which was three fingers high. [There was no altar in the second temple.] He took the blood of the bullock and returned within the veil, and sprinkled of it once upwards and seven times downwards; he went out and placed the bowl on a column in the sanctuary. He then killed the goat, and brought the blood within the veil, and sprinkled it as he did with the blood of the bullock; he went out and placed the bowl on a column in the sanctuary [tradition varies as to whether the column was the same as that on which the bowl containing the bullock's blood had been placed]; he then sprinkled the blood of the bullock on the veil on the outside, and afterwards the blood of the goat, both sprinklings being once upwards and seven times downwards, as he sprinkled the blood within the veil; he then mixed the blood of the bullock with that of the goat (53 b), and went out to the altar that is -before the Lord," the golden altar [but cp. note on Leviticus 16:18], and began cleansing it; he sprinkled on the middle [the clean place] of the altar seven times, and some of the remainder of the blood he poured out on the western base of the outer altar [the altar of Burnt-Offering] and the remainder of the blood he poured out on the southern base of that altar (58 b). If the high priest did not perform the work of the Day of Atonement in the prescribed order, it was invalid (60 b). Concerning the two goats for the Day of Atonement, it is commanded that they should be alike in colour, height, and price, with provision in the event of one of the goats dying (61 b). The high priest placed his two hands on the goat to be sent away, and said (Tal. Bab. Yoma, 66 a): O Lord, Thy people the house of Israel have committed iniquity, and transgressed, and sinned before Thee. O Lord pardon now the iniquities, the transgressions, and the sins which Thy people, the house of Israel, have iniquitously done, transgressed, and sinned before Thee, as it is written in the law of Moses Thy servant, -For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord" (Leviticus 16:30).

And the priests and the people when they heard the Name from the mouth of the priest, bowed, and worshipped, and fell on their faces and said, -Blessed be the Name, etc." (66 a). The goat was conducted to a place called Ẓôḳ, about 12 miles from Jerusalem (66 b), where it was thrown backwards from the edge of a cliff. Booths were placed at the end of each of the first ten miles; the nobles of Jerusalem accompanied the goat to the first booth, and the rest of the people as far as the last booth from which they watched the actions of the man who took charge of the goat. Watchmen made signals when the goat arrived at the edge of the wilderness, and its arrival was thus made known to the high priest (67 a, 68 b).

This treatise, though it contains many additional directions not found in Scripture, throws light on some parts of the Biblical account. It makes clear the occasions on which the high priest enters the Most Holy place: (1) he goes in with the censer and the incense as ordered in Leviticus 16:12; (2) after going out to fetch the blood of the bullock he enters the Most Holy place the second time(Leviticus 16:14); he then kills the goat, the Sin-Offering of the people; and (3) enters the Most Holy place the thirdtime with the blood of the goat (Leviticus 16:15). It also mentions the mixing of the blood of the bullock with that of the goat, which seems implied in Leviticus 16:18. The text of Leviticus 16:14 ordains sprinkling uponthe mercy-seat, according to EVV, and the generally accepted meaning of the Heb. But according to the Jewish tradition the sprinkling was in front of the mercy-seat, and the mercy-seat itself was not touched with the blood.